A recent executive decree from Peru’s government compels all telecommunications companies and Internet service providers to store traffic data for three years. Assuming that the decree holds, telcos will be forced to provide police with individual user data from these logs upon their request. Issued one day before Peru’s independence day, the decree explicitly states that the police should have access to geolocation data without a warrant or court order, and that this data is not protected under the Peruvian Constitution. Peruvian lawyer Miguel Morachimo told the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

“Any policy like that is controversial in itself, but the fact that it was directly approved by the Executive Branch without prior debate and in the middle of national holiday season is especially undemocratic.”

The decree has significant potential for abuse of its new powers. It ignores the fact that most cellphones today constantly transmit detailed location data about every individual to their carriers, and that all this location data is housed in one place — with the telecommunications service provider. This will leave Peruvian police with access to more precise, more comprehensive and more pervasive data than would ever have been possible under previous policies.

Pakistan is also planning to expand its surveillance capabilities, which could include monitoring broadband Internet traffic, phone records and cellular data transmissions, according to a report by Privacy International. The Verge notes that because Pakistan already has stringent registration requirements, such as a national biometric ID program and SIM card registration by fingerprint, these bulk surveillance plans may be particularly invasive.

Lebanon used Angry Birds to infect devices with Hacking Team malware

Emails leaked after Hacking Team’s systems were hacked in early July — and now searchable on WikiLeaks — indicate that Lebanon’s Interior Security Forces, General Security office, and Cybercrime Bureau all pursued contracts with the Milan-based surveillance-software maker. Emails suggest that Security Forces personnel were able to successfully infect target devices with the help of Hacking Team staff, and that they created a technical “backdoor” in the devices (a virtual channel through which authorities can monitor a user’s activities) by exploiting a security flaw in Angry Birds.

These revelations confirm what various bloggers and political activists had suspected after they were summoned for questioning by the Cybercrime Bureau. Beirut-based technology journalist Habib Battah described the bureau’s approach in June:

“In some cases, bloggers have claimed that police agents tricked them into giving up information by sending malware to their computers, a practice [Major Suzan Hajj Hobeiche, head of the Cybercrime Bureau] seemed to endorse by claiming “ethical hacking” used by law enforcement is sometimes needed to protect the greater good. Yet, increasingly, that greater good seems to be defined by the interests of the wealthy and well-connected…Many activists and lawyers worry that the bureau is unregulated and poses a threat to free speech. U.K. High Court strikes down discrete data retention practices.

In slightly better news from the world of digital surveillance, a U.K. High Court ruled against data retention laws that allowed the government to order telecommunications companies to retain their users’ metadata for one year stand. The reason: The laws failed to require authorities to obtain judicial approval prior. The court also took issue with the lack of “clear and precise rules” for the collection of data in the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 (sections 1 and 2). The Home Office says it will appeal the decision.

Malaysia blocks news website in face of public finance investigation

Malaysia blocked news website the Sarawak Report and suspended two local papers after they published investigative reports on the suspicious transfer of US$700 million from a government-managed investment fund into the personal bank account of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. While there is evidence that the government has censored the Internet in the past, this marks the first time it has publicly acknowledged doing so. Although the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission claims that the block was carried out legally under the Communications and Multimedia Act of 1998, the law does not sanction censorship of online websites.

Is YouTube headed for Russia’s Internet blacklist?

Russian media and Internet watchdog Roscomnadzor issued an official warning on July 22 to YouTube that the site may be added to the country’s Internet blacklist for copyright violations. The warning comes after the Moscow city court ruled that copyright was violated when two Russian TV shows were uploaded to YouTube. Though YouTube took down the videos, others were subsequently uploaded. Roscomnadzor reported seeing 137 copies on the site as of July 20.

Transparency reports: When it comes to takedowns, copyright is king

The online marketplace Etsy shut down more than 168,000 accounts over the year 2014, according to its first transparency report. It shut down 3,993 shops for violations of Etsy’s intellectual property policy and disabled 176,137 listings in response to DMCA takedown requests. However, the majority of the shutdowns were for non-IP related issues, such as spam and the sale of items prohibited on the site. New Zealand marketplace Trade Me and U.S. web performance and security company Cloudflare also issued new transparency reports this week. Meanwhile, Vodafone has published its second annual transparency report, which it calls the “Law Enforcement Disclosure Report.”

]]>http://mediashift.org/2015/07/netizen-report-peru-pakistan-erode-privacy-with-surveillance-tactics/feed/0#EdShift Chat: Teaching Journalism Onlinehttp://mediashift.org/2015/07/edshift-chat-teaching-journalism-online/
http://mediashift.org/2015/07/edshift-chat-teaching-journalism-online/#commentsFri, 31 Jul 2015 10:00:06 +0000http://mediashift.org/?p=117528As online education hits a more mature point, journalism programs are offering a range of distance-learning courses. But how do you effectively translate the in-class experience to the web, especially when teaching something like writing leads?

On Tuesday, Aug. 4th, our #EdShift chat on Twitter will explore the different ways journalism is being taught online, from such standards as media ethics and news writing to entire degree and certificate programs. Join us at 1 p.m. Eastern Time / 12 p.m. Central Time / 10 a.m. Pacific Time as we discuss how educators engage students from a distance and facilitate learning online, as well as share the best practices for making it a positive experience for students.

The myriad of reality television shows about pawnshops — from Hardcore Pawn to Combat Pawn to Pawn Stars — is an indicator of an uptick in interest in alternative financial institutions (AFIs). Perhaps the interest is a matter of mystique about what actually transpires in a pawnshop, or rubbernecking the desperation of those in need. Or perhaps the interest reflects the increasing ubiquity of AFI’s across the United States.

Pawnshops offer collateral loan services and charge simple monthly interest, capped at 4 percent in New York (our home state) but as high as 25 percent in Mississippi and Alabama. Once related and required fees are factored in, pawnshop loans, even in New York, are considerably more expensive than traditional bank loans. The geographic distribution of AFIs skews toward low-income areas where residents need quick loans in small amounts to cover necessities. This produces a predatory system that charges residents with the most needs the highest rates.

Jewelry on offer in a pawnshop. Photo by Laurie Rubel.

Cash City in NYC Schools

Learning Mathematics of the City in the City was funded by the National Science Foundation in 2012. The project aims to give local relevance to mathematics learning and open a window for students to use mathematics to understand socioeconomic issues in their city. Led by the City University of New York’s Brooklyn College, in collaboration with Sarah Williams of MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab, the project designed a mathematics education module that focuses on financial institutions in New York City for use in local high schools.

How does a pawnshop loan work? How can you use mathematics to model a loan and compare across different loan options? Where are pawnshops, other AFIs, and banks located in your city, with what patterns? What are strategies to compare neighborhoods’ financial resources? High school youth and mathematics teachers from three NYC public schools in low-income neighborhoods investigated these questions in their work with this module, known as Cash City.

Media in Cash City

Cash City presents a web-based map that invites readers to analyze the distribution of financial institutions across New York City. The map pinpoints locations of banks and AFIs by category:

Locations of financial services. Screenshot taken from City Digits: Cash City, designed by Sarah Williams, MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab and the City Digits team

It can be shaded according to various Census variables to reveal underlying patterns:

Demographic Layers (Percent “Population in Poverty”). Locations of financial services. Screenshot taken from City Digits: Cash City, designed by Sarah Williams, MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab and the City Digits team.

The map normalizes the numbers of financial institutions in various ways, allowing readers to compare, for example, pawnshops per square mile, in different neighborhoods across the city:

Relative density of pawnshops in NYC (Pawnshops per Square Mile). Locations of financial services. Screenshot taken from City Digits: Cash City, designed by Sarah Williams, MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab and the City Digits team.

As part of the 10-day module, students took to the streets in groups to conduct field research and visited pawnshops, other AFIs and banks. Using mobile phones or cellular-enabled tablets, students recorded photographs, audio interviews, and notes. Media was instantly archived and geolocated on the maps using a custom web-based tool designed by MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab.

Students doing field research. Photo by Ernesto Mora.

Findings and Challenges

The theme of spatial justice generated student interest in mastering concepts like percent to understand interest rates. Students expressed that by learning math in this way, they could connect to the “real-life” aspects of the module. They also enjoyed talking with people in the field research, and these aspects made the module more interesting than regular mathematics class — “because you actually could get to see things.” Some students highlighted a feeling that this was something that they really needed to pursue.

Student examines check-cashing rates. Photo by Laurie Rubel.

Lauren Shookhoff, one of the collaborating teachers, explained how this media tool allowed her students to curate their own stories about their neighborhoods. She said, “Students photographed banks and bodegas, pawnshops and people as directed and also chose to document murals, subway stations, churches, people walking their dogs. These are stories of and from these neighborhoods.” Spanish-speaking ELL students were thrust naturally into the role of leaders in the field research because they could successfully guide their groups in interacting with pedestrians and shopkeepers in Spanish.

Local financial institutions generously hosted the visiting youth for the most part though in some cases, store managers’ unwillingness to talk with youth was painfully experienced as racism. In general, banks were more restrictive to visitors and photography than the AFIs, which perhaps reinforced an underlying misconception that AFIs are local resources and not financial predators.

Although the larger system of access to financial services may have seemed out of grasp to some in terms of being able to affect it through activism, many students expressed feelings of empowerment through Cash City. For example, one student said that by better understanding percents and interest rates, she learned to, “stop the bank in their tracks. Like, I know what they doin’. I could probably calculate it for myself and then tell them what I owe them instead of them tellin’ me what I owe them.”

Students proudly asserted that they wanted to share what they had learned, with their parents, families, and, more broadly, with other youth. In the words of one of the students, “By knowing about pawnshops and how they work, we can try to avoid being taken advantage of. We can try to make good financial decisions. But we also realize that a lot of people are in this predicament that don’t have a choice and that’s unfair.”

Maren Hall-Wieckert is a research assistant with the City University of New York.

Laurie H. Rubel is on the faculty of the City University of New York (Brooklyn College). Special thanks to the hard-working, brilliant teachers who collaborated with us on this project. More information is at www.citydigits.org

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DRL-1222430. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

]]>http://mediashift.org/2015/07/how-kids-are-learning-mathematics-maps-and-spatial-justice-in-nyc/feed/0Futures Lab update #115: Predictive Video Downloads, and a New Crowdsourcing Platformhttp://mediashift.org/2015/07/futures-lab-update-115-predictive-video-downloads-and-a-new-crowdsourcing-platform/
http://mediashift.org/2015/07/futures-lab-update-115-predictive-video-downloads-and-a-new-crowdsourcing-platform/#commentsThu, 30 Jul 2015 10:00:14 +0000http://mediashift.org/?p=117574This week we learn how a new technology uses predictions to speed mobile video playback; and we explore another platform for crowdsourcing photos and video.

PART 1: Video playback with Inmobly

A technology from Inmobly can predict which videos a mobile viewer might want to watch and download files in advance as a way to avoid delays during peak network traffic times. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Hesham El Gamal tells us how it works.Reporting by Raven Brown.

PART 2: Crowdsourcing via Fresco

New York-based Fresco is building a consumer-facing platform for crowdsourced news that also includes an assignment dispatch system for newsrooms to request specific materials. Chief Executive Officer John Meyer says the app could help journalists get visual content from the scene in a fast, direct manner.Reporting by Daniel Shapiro.

Reuben Stern is the deputy director of the Futures Lab at the Reynolds Journalism Institute and host and co-producer of the weekly Futures Lab video update.

The Reynolds Journalism Institute’s Futures Lab video update features a roundup of fresh ideas, techniques and developments to help spark innovation and change in newsrooms across all media platforms. Visit the RJI website for the full archive of Futures Lab videos, or download the iPad appto watch the show wherever you go. You can also sign up to receive email notification of each new episode.

]]>http://mediashift.org/2015/07/futures-lab-update-115-predictive-video-downloads-and-a-new-crowdsourcing-platform/feed/0Mission Journal: Will Obama’s Visit Boost Hopes for Press Freedom in Kenya?http://mediashift.org/2015/07/mission-journal-will-obamas-visit-boost-hopes-for-press-freedom-in-kenya/
http://mediashift.org/2015/07/mission-journal-will-obamas-visit-boost-hopes-for-press-freedom-in-kenya/#commentsThu, 30 Jul 2015 10:00:02 +0000http://mediashift.org/?p=117492The following piece is a guest post and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of this publication. Read more about MediaShift guest posts here.

President Barack Obama addressed a range of topics while in Kenya. The Kenyan government said it had planned to discuss security and trade, while opposition parties and civil society wanted good governance and human rights added to the agenda, according to news reports. We had hoped the discussion included the commitments to improve press freedom that the Kenyan government made to CPJ last week.

On July 15, we released our special report, “Broken Promises: How Kenya is failing to uphold its commitment to a free press,” in Nairobi to a room full of more than 50 Kenyan and foreign journalists. The report found that a combination of legal and physical harassment, as well as concentration in media ownership, is making it increasingly difficult for journalists to work freely in Kenya.

Economic journalism training in Nairobi in 2012. Photo by David Brewer on Flickr and reused here with Creative Commons license.

Potential on display, problems on the ground

Kenya’s potential — including strong economic growth and stability and openness relative to neighbors like Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea — was on full display for Obama. His arrival saw a flurry of work, such as upgrading the Mombasa Road that connects the airport to downtown Nairobi. But alongside these improvements, Kenyans are grappling with corruption, land-grabbing and a series of deadly terrorist attacks. CPJ’s report found that journalists who cover these and other sensitive topics are subject to harassment and violence, and that attacks on the press in Kenya happen with almost complete impunity.

Following the launch, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for Information, Communications and Technology (ICT), Fred Matiangi, initially dismissed the report as “unscientific” and a “badly crafted joke,” according to media reports. But in his office the next day, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon, East Africa Representative Tom Rhodes and I had a frank and constructive meeting with Matiangi and his colleagues in the ICT ministry.

Matiangi said he disagreed with the report’s characterization that the Kenyan government had failed to honor its commitment to press freedom. “We are humble enough, we are not angels. But we deserve more from our critics,” he said, rejecting the notion that Kenya had broken any promises. The notion that the media was not free relied on an “old myth” which had been consigned to the past, he said, adding that there had been a significant improvement in conditions for the media in Kenya in recent years and that President Uhuru Kenyatta was determined to create a culture and an environment that respected press freedom.

Uhuru Kenyatta, the president of Kenya, at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague in Oct. 2014, for a hearing over his indictment on charges of crimes against humanity. Photo by Day Donaldson and reused here with Creative Commons license.

To that end, Matiangi offered to arrange a meeting between the cabinet secretary for the Interior and Coordination of National Government, Joseph Nkaissery, and CPJ to follow up on the case of two journalists, Nehemiah Okwembah and Reuben Ogachi, who were attacked in Tana River County in southeast Kenya in April by members of the paramilitary police and beaten with wooden clubs and metal rods. Matiangi noted that the Kenyan government was among the first to denounce the attack and vowed that authorities would “get to the bottom of the matter.” Matiangi added that the Inspector General of Police had promised a thorough investigation and once it was concluded an indictment was expected.

Matiangi also expressed willingness to further discuss the issue of criminal defamation, again pledging to arrange a meeting with Nkaissery — though not before saying the government was exasperated with the media’s “irresponsible” reporting. In our report, CPJ recommended that the Kenyan government repeal its criminal defamation law and that journalists should not require a license to do their work. Matiangi stressed the need to maintain laws such as criminal defamation and to focus on building media professionalism, but CPJ emphasized that civil defamation laws already provide for redress.

The meeting was inconclusive regarding the April 2015 murder of John Kituyi and the January 2009 murder of Franci Nyaruri. Matiangi pointed out that many murders went unsolved in Kenya and that this should not be characterized as a “broken promise” by the government, but noted that the cases were still open for investigation.

In a press conference following our meeting, Matiangi confirmed that the discussions had been useful and candid and that police investigations would ensure justice. “Nothing will tempt us to encroach on press freedom,” he said.

But, as CPJ’s Simon observed at the press conference, if a commitment to delivering justice is to have meaning, it must bear results. Just as the newly planted trees along Mombasa Road need to be tended to last longer than a presidential visit, a culture of press freedom must be actively nurtured in order to take root in Kenya and avoid further broken promises.

Sue Valentine, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, has worked as a journalist in print and radio in South Africa since the late 1980s, including at The Star newspaper in Johannesburg and as the executive producer of a national daily current affairs radio show on the SABC, South Africa’s public broadcaster.

A version of this post originally appeared on CPJ’s website. The Committee to Protect Journalists is a New York-based, independent, non-profit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide. You can learn more at CPJ.org or follow the CPJ on Twitter @pressfreedom or on Facebook here.

]]>http://mediashift.org/2015/07/mission-journal-will-obamas-visit-boost-hopes-for-press-freedom-in-kenya/feed/0Daily Must Reads, July 29, 2015http://mediashift.org/2015/07/daily-must-reads-july-29-2015/
http://mediashift.org/2015/07/daily-must-reads-july-29-2015/#commentsWed, 29 Jul 2015 18:24:34 +0000http://mediashift.org/?p=1175791. If you think women in tech is just a pipeline problem, you haven’t been paying attention (Rachel Thomas / Medium)

With a new school year set to start, this one-hour session will feature a rapid-fire breakdown of ideas and exercises aimed at fueling your new media storytelling and audience engagement potential. The focus will be on providing innovative, yet practical tips and the types of examples you can duplicate or adapt for use at your own outlet ASAP — every day of the week. Ample time will also be set aside to answer attendee questions.

What You’ll Learn from This Training:

– Remaking the newsroom into an everyday news hub
– Building a successful daily student blog
– Mining social media for daily story slugs
– Identifying and attaching your outlet to daily viral content
– Daily marketing, moneymaking and promotional ventures
– The art of the email newsletter
– Real-time campus crime and police reporting
– Stub reporting, or building a story before readers’ eyes

Handouts:

– Dan will provide a list of links with how-tos and case studies to download

Who should take this training:

– Student media advisers interested in doing more with digital, mobile and social media
– Student journalists who are making digital and mobile more of a priority
– Journalism and media educators who want to launch a successful class project or school-sponsored student news service or media outlet
– Graduate students, professional journalists and public relations professionals interested in learning more about how the next generation of journalists is innovating and experimenting

Please feel free to email questions or related areas of interest to Dan prior to the session at dreimold@gmail.com or post them on the DigitalEd page. He will also take questions throughout the session and leave time at the end for a quick Q&A.

Note: If you can’t attend the live session, you can still register and see the archived video and ask questions of the instructor. Registration for BigMarker is required.

About the Instructor:

Dan Reimold is a journalism professor, student media adviser, author and reporter who writes and presents frequently on student press issues and trends. He founded and maintains the daily student press blog College Media Matters and wrote the book “Journalism of Ideas: Brainstorming, Developing, and Selling Stories in the Digital Age.”